The Scottish government has commissioned a study addressing an all-too-rarely considered question: do pre-construction impact studies accurately predict the extent of shadow flicker, noise, and visual impacts on nearby neighbors? ClimateXChange will survey two thousand residents near 10 wind farms, including all residents with in 0.5km, and a sampling of residents at greater distances (somewhat over 30,000 families live within two miles of these wind farms, mostly around two of them).

The steering committee for the study includes at least one concerned citizens group, Scotland Against Spin, along with the leading national trade organizations, Scottish Renewables and Renewable UK, and Scottish Natural Heritage, a quasi-public advisory organization often concerned with landscape impacts. The surveys went out in June and are currently being assessed, with the final report due this winter.

Surprisingly, though ClimateXChange clearly outlines the purpose of the survey as described above, both wind advocates and concerned citizens groups have characterized the study as an investigation into health effects complaints, a topic actually addressed in a previous report (including some in-depth back-and-forth with a prominent critic of their approach and conclusions). ClimateXChange has also completed some other relatively unique reports for the Scottish government, including one on legal compensation frameworks for wind farm disturbance and a look at the long-time informal standard of keeping wind farms 2km from villages (both of these reports are relatively brief and inconclusive, however). A property values study is also currently underway.